Every year Multnomah holds a Student Aid Fundraising Banquet in an effort to encourage donors to help us keep tuition as low as we can. The cost of tuition does not cover the true cost to educate a student - so instead of passing along higher tuition prices, we ask private donors to give to the Student Aid Fund in order to keep these prices as low as possible. The difference between tuition and true cost is called the "Student Need Gap" (You can find more information about this on page 7 of the 2008 President's Annual Report).

The Student Aid Banquet is one of our best ways to raise money for students and to tell the story of "Multnomah" and, more importantly, the story of what God is doing through Multnomah's students.

A Rundown of the 2009 Student Aid Banquet from Matt Forsythe, Donor Relations Officer (he's also an alum of the Bible College)

Need Gap: Because Multnomah tries to keep tuition as low as possible, we need to raise $4,700 per student per year to keep tuition at $13,500. Most private, accredited schools are well over $20K per year.

Dollars Raised: $102,492

Attendance: We had 391 guests in attendance, 2 more than last year.

New Donors: 11 more new gifts than last year.

Table Sponsors: All tables and food were paid for by table sponsors, so there were no overhead costs for the banquet. All proceeds go directly to student aid.

Volunteers: We had the best student involvement ever. AJ Elzinga, a freshman, headed up a team of peers to help out with parking, traffic flow, mingling, greeting, and clean up. They were a huge help and made the banquet run smoothly.

Speakers:

Professor Val Clemen of the Seminary was our keynote speaker. She spoke about how God is good even in the midst of tremendous suffering. She shared about the intense auto accident she was in several years ago.

Our two students were Scotty Burns and Sam Nagel. I’ve been talking with all of our attendees and they think the two testimonies were phenomenal!

Scotty is part of a church plant in Glasgow, Scotland and has an amazing story of how several alumni in Scotland told him about Multnomah.

Sam is a sophomore who had a great transformation happen a year ago after his cousin died in a snowboarding accident. He came to realize the importance of relationships. He is now the co-director of Night Strike, a ministry to the homeless under the Burnside Bridge. Upon graduation, Sam wants to do Bible translation with Wycliffe in South America.

For more information about banquets or how you can help fill the "Need Gap"